


May I Not Have Your Attention, Please?

by Callisto_HK



Series: The Children Are Our Future [5]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Tony, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Abby, Kid Fic, Kid Tony, Tony Angst, Tony DiNozzo & Jethro Gibbs Father-Son Relationship, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-23 08:57:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14329008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callisto_HK/pseuds/Callisto_HK
Summary: Gibbs and Shannon love their kids; adopted or not! They both agree Tony and Abby are the best things that ever happened to them. It's just that they're still learning how to deal with a sick kid and not lose their heads completely...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In this one Tony is 6, almost 7, Abby is 4; and there's still no Tim or Kate in the picture for the Gibbs.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this story, too and let me know what you think.

"Oh my God, Tony?! What... on earth have you gotten into?" Shannon barely censored herself before the curse word could leave her mouth when she spotted her son trying to sneak up the stairs and into his room.

Tony cringed and hung his head; he knew his parents would be furious if they saw him like that and that was why he'd tried to be quiet and sneak into the house and into his room without them noticing him.

"Your mother asked you a question, young man!" Gibbs wasn't yelling like Shannon, but his tone showed his anger nevertheless.

"I... I'm sorry." Tony mumbled, not looking up from the spot on the floor.

"That's not an answer!" Gibbs growled. "Why in the world are you covered in mud?"

When Tony kept quiet, Shannon sighed. "Look, kid; I know you're tired of having to stay quiet and cautious because Abby's sick; but so are we; don't you think we deserve a break? Is it too much to ask to stay out of trouble for a few days?"

Silently the kid shook his head and bit his lip.

"Then how can you explain this?" She waved her hand towards Tony's muddy appearance and the trail that he'd left behind him on the floor. "Don't you think I have enough to deal with? I really can't run around and clean your mess, too!"

"He'll clean it himself." Gibbs said firmly.

"Yeah? Well, he better! I'm going to check on Abby." She snapped angrily and walked past Tony and up the stairs to check on her sick little girl.

Abby had been down with mumps for a few days and along with the little girl, the parents were both tired, as well; they still weren't sure how she'd come in contact with the virus; the chances of someone getting that infection was pretty rare, but Abby played with many questionable things and to be honest, it was a wonder she didn't get sick or infected more often. Thankfully, they all had been vaccinated against mumps; still, they'd forbidden Tony to enter Abby's room and had tried to sanitize the whole house meticulously, multiple times; which had left them even more exhausted. After one week, they were both drained and grouchy.

This was the first time they'd faced a challenge like that; they'd pretty much dived into the parenthood and still weren't ready to deal with the fear of having a sick kid. Surprisingly, both Tony and Abby were always healthy and very strong and that was why, after many months of having the kids, it was the first time that one of them had gotten so sick and seriously, it couldn't be a simple illness like the flu or something; Abby had to go and get infected with something rare like the Mumps virus and although it wasn't a serious or dangerous illness, it was still bad and the young parents had worried themselves sick. Even Shannon who was a nurse and had dealt with sick and injured people for so many years was having a hard time; dealing with ailing strangers was one thing and having her own kid sick like that was a whole new dilemma.

Tony had been worried about Abby, too and despite his young age, he was great at reading people and he could see how worried both Shannon and Gibbs were; so he'd tried to stay out of the way; had tried to cause no trouble since he knew his new parents were having a hard enough time. He really hadn't meant to get into trouble; but a bunch of older kids had cornered him at the playground and had thought him a lesson about his place. That was why he was covered in mud.

"You know where the mop is; go clean yourself and then clean the floor." Gibbs' order made him flinch, but he nodded his head and quietly turned around to walk up the stairs, but his dad's voice stopped him again.

"Wait a minute. What's that?"

Tony swallowed, he'd hoped they wouldn't notice anything but his dirty clothes and appearance; but of course, Gibbs, the ever observant investigator, had noticed it.

"What's happened to your face?"

"Nothing." Tony mumbled.

"Nothing? So your lip is swollen and you have a cut on your cheek for nothing?"

Tony wasn't sure why Gibbs was mad at _him_ ; it wasn't like he'd asked those kids to beat him.

"What did you do?"

Tony's head turned up with confusion. "I-... I..."

Gibbs narrowed his eyes. "Did you do this to get our attention? Did you get into a fight?"

Tony's eyes widened.

"That's it, isn't it? You're jealous that Abby's having all our attention these days and you wanted to make us see you?" The man was shaking his head, his tone laced with both sadness and disappointment.

"What?" Tony was shocked. Did his dad really think that Tony'd done this on purpose? How could he do that, anyway? He was so confused. "No." He shook his head vigorously, even though it hurt him badly.

Gibbs didn't believe him, though. During the months that they'd become the parents of those two kids; they'd always paid equal attention to the both of them and they knew Tony needed a lot of attention because of his past; he wouldn't put it past the boy to demand more of it when he felt they weren't seeing him. "Go to your room."

"But, dad! I didn't-" the small boy stammered, but he was once again cut off by the man who'd adopted him all those month ago.

"Go, Tony! Right now I don't have time or the patience for this." The man was shaking his head with frustration. "You can talk when you're ready to admit to your mistake."

Tony opened his mouth to say he hadn't done anything; but he was silenced with a glare and with the uncertainty that maybe he had done something wrong after all; maybe this actually _was_ his fault.

"You have to learn that you can't be the center of everyone's attention all the time."

"But I didn't do it for your attention. I didn't do it." Tony protested; sounding close to tears.

"Your room; then bathroom; then cleaning the floor. Now, boy! Go!" Gibbs almost barked the orders and walked away; he was done.

Tony sank to the floor; sitting on a step, he cradled his arm against his chest. It really hurt, but he didn't have time to check it out; he had to get cleaned and then mop the floor; Gibbs and Shannon were already mad at him and they clearly thought he was acting out to get their attention; he couldn't let that continue; he had to stay out of their ways so that they'd forget this evening and maybe forgive him.

With some difficulty, he pulled his tired and battered body up the stairs and into the bathroom to get cleaned before going back downstairs and cleaning the mess he'd created there. He'd think of his arm, later. After all, it wasn't the first time he'd spent a long time ignoring one injury or another. He'd become an expert in that.

His arm was broken; he knew that because he'd had broken his arms and legs before and he was glad that this time he at least couldn't see the bone. There was a time that his father had hit him with a golf club and the bone in his arm had snapped and then came out of his skin; the sight of it had made him sick and he'd cried loudly; which was something he'd learned not to do when his father was teaching him a lesson; but he hadn't been able to keep it in, that time and thankfully the sight of his arm had put a stop to his punishment. His father had thrown him into the arms of one of the staff and ordered him to call the doctor. He couldn't remember much of that night; just that he'd woken up with a white cast on his arm and an order to stay in his room.

That had been the only time that he'd seen his bone; every other time that he'd broken a bone and needed a cast, the break had been hidden like this time.

He'd kept his arm against his chest the whole time he was cleaning the floor and then quietly walked up to his room; there, he'd tried to come up with a way to fix his arm; but he didn't have a cast and didn't know how to make one; he just knew it was really painful and that it was keeping him from moving the broken limb; it was only because he'd felt that pain -and even worse- before that he knew how to be quiet about it.

Not wanting to disturb Gibbs and Shannon for something as unimportant as a broken arm, especially since they thought he'd done that to have their attention, he decided to do something about it himself. Grabbing a T-shirt, he carefully wrapped it around his arm and even though tears were running down his cheeks, because it really, _really_ hurt to touch or move his arm, he kept quiet and didn't make a sound; that was something else that he'd become good at with his father's lessons. After wrapping the T-shirt around his arm, he took the duct tape that he'd grabbed from the kitchen's drawer and started to role it around the makeshift bandage on his arm to secure it in its place and make it hard like a cast. When he was done, he knew it wasn't as good as a cast, but that was all he could do; so he rolled his shirt's sleeve down to hide the whole thing and went to bed; telling himself that his teeth would forgive him for not washing them just one night.

**.**

**.**

**TBC ...**

**.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to remind you that there's no connection, whatsoever, between the stories of this series; each story is a standalone.
> 
> Thank you so much for your support, comments and kudos. Hope you like this chapter, too.

Four days later, Abby was doing much better and even though it was clear that she still needed some days to get back to her normal self, she was doing so good that her parents decided it was safe to let her play in the backyard for a couple of hours, with her toys, not the bugs or anything else, of course, but still! And she was still not allowed to have playmates, just as a precaution, but at least she could eat better, the swelling had gone down and both Gibbs and Shannon were feeling like they had aced an important test; they knew they'd been a bit ridiculous, but since this had been their first time having one of their children sick, they figured they could be excused for acting a bit crazy! Not that anyone had seen them to judge them or anything.

That night they all were able to get a good night rest and the next morning both parents finally felt fresh and well-rested.

"You making pancakes?" Gibbs yawned as he entered the kitchen and found his wife at the stove. "Abby can't have them yet."

"Tony can." She replied easily. "I think I was kinda harsh to him the other day. Now that I've rested and can think properly, I can see that he was just being a kid."

"I don't know," Gibbs shrugged. "I mean what he did _was_ wrong and as much as it pains me, I think we gotta be strict with them when it's needed."

"I know; but we could've just asked him to clean the floor and himself nicely; we didn't have to be so hard on him."

Craning his neck, Gibbs threw a glance towards the stairway to make sure the kids weren't up yet and when he was certain they were still alone, he said, "Shan, I was thinking maybe we should have Tony see a professional or something."

Frowning, she looked up from the pan in her hand. "A professional? What for?"

"You know..." He shrugged again, "He's been through a lot and... Well, I feel it's affected him more than we've realized."

"What do you mean?"

"The other day when he came back all dirty and muddy?"

"Yeah?"

"He also had a bruised cheek and a cut on his lip." He informed her.

"What?" She exclaimed. "O my God! How did I not notice that? How did I not see it these past few days? O God, I'm a terrible mother! I just yelled at him for making a mess, not even noticing my baby was hurt! Not even seeing it for days! How could I miss that? Why would-"

"Hey! Hey!" Gibbs put a hand on her arm, took the pan from her hand and turned the stove off. "Calm down. You were just tired; that doesn't make you a bad mother."

"But it does!" She shook her head desperately, feeling like she'd failed her son, "Thank God, you noticed, though! Did you help him? Did he tell you what happened? Is he sad that I didn't notice?"

"Shannon? Would you calm down?" Gibbs rolled his eyes. "That was really not my point."

"What? What are you talking about? What's your point, then?"

"I think Tony's gotten into a fight to get our attention because we've been giving all our attention and time to Abby!"

Shannon's eyes widened and filled with sorrow. "Oh! My poor baby!"

Shaking his head, Gibbs said, "No, Shannon! Not this time. Don't you see? That's why I'm saying he needs to see a professional."

Shannon looked confused.

"If we don't fix it now, if we don't stop this, he might grow up to become a self-centered narcissist!"

"Nar... Narcissist?" Shannon moved back from her husband's arm, looking horrified. "Can you even hear yourself? Jethro, he's only 6!"

"And he thinks he has to be the center of everyone's attention already!"

"So what? He hasn't been the center of anyone's attention for the last 6 years! What if now that he can have some attention, he'd ask for it? I'd say that's a good thing that he's finally trusted us enough to ask for it!"

"First of all; he gotta learn that sometimes, no matter what, he can't be the center of attention; second of all, at what cost? You think just because he's 6 and because he's never had it before, he should do anything to get our attention? Including getting into fights and acting out? Shannon, be reasonable; I'm _worried_ about him. I'm saying this because I _love_ him."

Shannon had a frown on her face, though and it was clear that she was seeing things under a different light. " _First of all_ ," She started, mimicking her husband's words, "I think he knows better than _anyone_ in this world that he can't be the center of attention all the time, if _at all_!" She spat forcefully; "Second of all, what makes you think he'd gotten into a fight to get our attention? I haven't heard a peep out of him during the last two weeks! In fact, the day that he came back all dirty and apparently bruised, we caught him trying to _sneak_ into the house without anyone noticing! Don't you think that if he wanted our attention, he would've burst into the house, wailing and demanding that said attention instead of trying to be quiet and unseen?"

 _'Well, if you put it that wa_ y...' Gibbs had to admit that her words were making more sense than his own theory.

"God, you can be really dense, sometimes!" She sighed exasperatedly. "So, let me get this straight; our son comes back home bruised and dirty and all I do is snap at him for making a mess on the floor without even noticing that'd been hurt and _you_ notice it and still do nothing?"

As Gibbs averted his gaze, Shannon's eyebrow rose. "Tell me you did nothing!" She demanded. "Please, _please_ tell me you didn't accuse him of purposely getting into a fight to get our attention."

Gibbs gulped as he briefly met the angry woman's eyes.

Throwing her hands in the air, she turned around. "That boy can't take a break!" She shook her head. "Great job, Gunny! Why don't you quit your day job and become a psychiatrist instead? You know, since you're so quick at seeing the problem and announcing it! Or wait; maybe you should become a judge; you're clearly great at making hasty judgments and conclusions based on-"

"OK! OK! I get it! I screwed up!" Gibbs jumped in, cutting off her ranting, not able to stand any more of the well-deserved reproach.

"Narcissist! Some investigator!" She muttered sarcastically as she walked out of the kitchen to go up and check on the kids! Sometimes she wondered how Gibbs had become such a good investigator with such a terrible habit of jumping to conclusions without having the proper evidence.

Gibbs, disappointed at himself; sank into a chair and tried to find a way to apologize to Tony for accusing him falsely like that. He hadn't been sitting there long before Shannon's shout of his name had him run up the stairs three at a time.

Inside Tony's room, he could see Tony looking scared and surprised at the same time, trying to get away from his mother for some reasons and as he looked at his wife, he found her looking terrified, trying to approach their son.

"What? What's wrong?" He asked, sounding petrified himself.

"Mom?" Tony's eyes were big as saucers.

"Don't you _Mom_ me, young man! Let me see your arm!"

"But it's nothing!"

"Tony!" She exclaimed. "You gasped and jumped awake when I just _touched_ it! I'm a nurse, son; I think I can say the difference between nothing and something!"

Reluctantly, Tony finally let his mother grab his arm and roll up his sleeve; or try to role it up; when she was unsuccessful because something was preventing the sleeve to go up, she gently took it off of Tony's body and gasped as she saw the makeshift cast on her son's arm. "O dear Lord! Tony, what's this?!"

Tony swallowed hard, threw a shy glance at his father and murmured something.

"What?" Shannon frowned and leaned forward to hear her son. "Oh, God! Of course I know you didn't do it on purpose." She said and threw a dirty look at her husband.

"Mommy? Daddy?" Abby's sleepy voice came from the doorway.

They all looked back and found her standing just outside Tony's room; rubbing her right eye with her right fist. Clearly Shannon's shocked shout had woken her up, as well.

"Oh, sweetie; I'm sorry I woke you up. Can you please go back to your room and rest some more until I come and get you? You can't be here."

She looked between the occupants of the room and saw the shirt and the duct tape on Tony's arm. "Is Tony alright?"

"Yes!" Tony answered before anyone else could say anything.

"What's that?" She pointed to the thing on his arm.

"Uh, nothing. Just... Just something I made. I'll show you later." He said quickly, trying to smile for her.

She smiled back at him and nodded; she was still sleepy, so she staggered back to her own room.

The grownups once again looked at Tony, waiting for an answer.

Tony remained quiet, looking at everything in the room but the two grownups.

"Can you tell me what happened, Tony?" Shannon prodded kindly. "Please?"

Shrugging, Tony answered nonchalantly. "It's just broken."

 _'- Just\- broken?' What's 'just' about it being broken?_ "Brok...Broken?" She stammered. "How do you know? Let me see."

"No!" Tony tried to pull his arm away. "I've had broken bones, before. I know."

_Oh, God, could this day get any worse?_

"Tony, if it's broken, then we need to get you to the hospital and fix it; you can't leave it like that. When did this happen? Why didn't you say anything? You can't hide your injuries from us!" Gibbs' tone was once again reproachful, but this time it was out of worry.

Tony was really confused now; what was he supposed to do? He hadn't said anything and the man had told him he needed to grow up and stop asking for attention and now he was upset because he hadn't mentioned a simple broken bone? "My father's doctor always put a cast on my broken bones! I fixed it like he did with the tape. It's safe."

"My... son! No! They have to X-ray it and make sure the bones are aligned right and then they'll fix it; you can't do it at home." She sounded really chagrined. "Why didn't you tell us? We could've helped you. You shouldn't have suffered like this. I bet it's painful."

"It's not too bad." Tony shrugged.

"Tony? When did this happen?" She asked dreadfully, already guessing the answer.

Swallowing, he murmured, "Friday night."

**.**

**.**

**TBC ...**

**.  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I know it's not exactly the best place to end the chapter, but I had to do it. The next chapter, which is the final chapter of this story, will be up next week.
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!


	3. Chapter 3

_"Tony? When did this happen?" She asked dreadfully, already guessing the answer._

_Swallowing, he murmured, "Friday night."_

* * *

Shannon's eyes widened. "That's... That's four days ago, Tony!"

The boy shrugged again; Gibbs took a step back and heavily leaned against a wall; somehow, he knew Tony hadn't said a thing because of what he'd accused him of! Jesus, and Shannon called _herself_ a bad parent! What did that make _him_?

Closing her eyes, Shannon let her head down to her chest, as she, too, did the math in her head and realized why Tony hadn't said a word about being and why he had taken care of it on his own; although, chances were that even if Gibbs hadn't said those things, Tony would've still hidden his problem in order not to avert their attention from Abby. The boy had really been worried about her.

Tony's left hand, the one which wasn't broken, touched her cheek and she realized that a tear had left her eye and Tony was wiping it away with concern. Carefully, she pulled him into a hug. "I'm so sorry, baby. I should've noticed sooner."

Shaking his head against her shoulder, Tony quietly said, "No! You were worried about Abby. She was really sick. I didn't want you to see it. I'm good at hiding things and taking care of them."

And wasn't that just ten times worse? The boy, only 6 - OK, almost 7- was so good at hiding his pain and taking care of his needs that the grownups could actually be excused for not noticing! ' _No, they couldn't_ ;' a voice screamed in her head. They could never be excused and forgiven for things like this; for not noticing; for not seeing; for this type of neglect! Because it _was_ neglect, no matter how scary it was for Shannon to realize that they'd both neglected Tony and the boy was so used to it and to worse, that he hadn't said a thing; that he'd thought it right. So, no, it wasn't excusable; but Tony excused them, nevertheless.

"I still should've noticed. I will do better; I promise, sweetie. I'm so sorry. I'm _just_ learning to be a Mom. Still..." She trailed off and looked at her son like she expected to see disappointed in his eyes; but the only things she could see there were confusion and acceptance.

"You're already great." The boy reassured her, because he could see how much the two people who'd taken him in wanted to build a good home for their kids. "Both of you." He included Gibbs, noticing how the man had gone all quiet and with his shoulders slumped, looked really sad and alone.

"Well, thank you, but good parents will notice things like that. I just... I just want you to know that you can... that you _should_ come to us whenever you feel unwell; no matter how minor you think the problem is; or what some of us say when we're tired; it's our duty to help you; please please come to us." She insisted. "You see, at your age you might miscalculate the majority of a problem and end up really hurt and I don't think either of us can take that; I _know_ we can't take it if something happened to you. So, will you promise me? Will you come to us and tell us when something is bothering you?"

Tony looked uncertain; despite everything he'd heard, he was sure he could handle things on his own; he'd always done so!

"I know you're independent and that you know how to take care of yourself; but you also need to be a kid; you gotta let the others help you, because that'd make us feel useful; you know?" She smiled wanly.

Sighing heavily, Gibbs looked up from the floor and tilted his head. "Your mom is right. We want to help and we want to know when you have a problem; no matter how small it is." Pushing his body away from the wall, he walked towards his son and crouched down in front of him. "You probably think I'm being two-faced after what I said to you the other day; but I want you to know that I'm sorry for that. That was totally wrong of me and out of line and I knew better than saying something like that. I wasn't thinking clearly. Also, I'm sorry you had to suffer quietly, but no matter what's going on with everyone else, if you're hurt or if you have a problem, we're always there for you; even when I'm being an idiot, you should find someone else to tell them and then they'll do whatever is needed to open my eyes, because I know I can become-"

"Darn it!" Shannon suddenly exclaimed; cutting off her husband's speech. "You cleaned the floor with that arm?!"

Tony's head was reeling from the way Gibbs and Shannon were taking turns to talk and the things they were saying. "It... It was nothing." He whispered.

"Tony, I've had a broken arm a few years ago and I _know_ how much it hurts." Shannon shook her head; "And the tough guy with big mouth here," she glared at her husband, "knows it, too. He whines over a headache or a runny nose and he calls the _others_ narcissist."

"Nar-what?" Tony frowned with confusion.

OK, so Shannon was still mad at him and she clearly wouldn't forgive him any time soon. Gibbs gulped; he knew she'd make him pay and this time he actually didn't want to escape it; he felt he deserved it for putting Tony through this.

"I'm still learning." He murmured.

Shannon sighed. "That's true. We both are. We're new to this, Tony; we..." She swallowed and decided that so far they'd always been honest and straight with Tony, so they should keep doing it. The boy understood more than his age and he liked it better when the adults explained things to him and acknowledged that he wasn't naive. "When we started to go for adoption, we went through many classes and we always thought it was easy; I never understood why they repeated some of those stuff over and over again;" She noticed that Tony was now studying her and listening carefully; "I thought it was easy and clear; told myself how hard could it be? You know? That how could some parents not notice things and stuff... But... But I know better now. I understand now that it's too easy to freak out over something and not notice anything else and it's scary; I understand how easy it is to make a mistake." She looked sad all over again; "You've already been through so much and you deserve better than us; if only you could... If you-"

"Did I do something wrong?" Tony asked quietly; he understood some of the things Shannon was saying; he just didn't get why she was saying those things to him; he couldn't get what both Shannon and Gibbs were so upset about. He wasn't even sure what they were asking of him or he would've just accepted it.

"No, son. _We_ did." Shannon stood up. "But we're new to this parenting thing and although we know the rules, it's a whole new story in practice."

"Okaaay." Tony nodded, just because he felt it was expected of him; because to him, they hadn't done anything wrong really; OK, Gibbs had said things that weren't true and that had confused Tony and had hurt him a bit; but it wasn't bad enough for them to act this way.

"So, if you could just forgive us this once... We, uh; we might make more mistakes, but not this huge; I swear; just normal mistakes like you and Abby might do, but together we'll learn how to be a real family. Does that sound good?" Gibbs asked, still kneeling in front of his son.

"And you know what real families do?" Shannon asked and without waiting for a response, she answered her own question. "They tell each other things; ask for help; rely on each other and _support_ each other no matter what. I know we didn't do such a good job of it this time, but we'll do better; I can promise you that much. And we get it that you're strong and wary of asking for help; but we _want_ to help. Let us be there for you?"

"And in the meantime, forgive me and my big mouth?" Gibbs asked tentatively.

Tony looked between them; trying to digest the whole real family speech. That sounded kinda great; but why would people do that if they could do things on their own? He couldn't exactly get that part; but he realized that a lot of things were different from what he'd learned in his first house and that he had to relearn many of them. So maybe this was one of them; maybe he had to just accept it and go with it and see how things turned out. He didn't want to be a burden; like his real father used to call him; but he figured he'd try this real family thing for a while and then he'd see how it worked out. Maybe his father had been wrong. "OK."

"OK, you forgive me? Or OK you'll let us help?" Gibbs asked.

Shrugging, Tony said, "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Of course, I did; and not just because I didn't see the broken arm and made you clean the floor like that and not noticing it for days. I did wrong because I wasn't supportive and jumped to the wrong conclusion and said things that were wrong in so many ways. I gotta learn not to jump to conclusions; not to... I just..." He sighed.

"You gotta learn to think before you speak." Shannon shook her head.

"Yeah, that."

"Thanks." Tony didn't know what else to say; he was a bit choked at the wave of emotion and kindness he was receiving from his new parents and of course he could move on from some wrong accusation when they were saying that they were new to this as well and that together they needed to learn how to be a real family.

Pulling his son to his chest, Gibbs kissed the top of his head and thanked his lucky star for being given this gift. "Now, let's get you to the hospital and put a proper cast on that arm." He hoped they could somehow go through that without the staff of the hospital calling CPS on them for not bringing Tony to the hospital sooner; hopefully, Shannon could convince her colleagues that either it was a one-time incident and not a case of child neglect; or ask them to give them one more chance; hopefully her reputation would save them this time; he couldn't lose Tony; he couldn't forgive himself if they did something that'd put Tony in the system again. They were Tony's family and were supposed to be there for him and Tony was his; his son, his everything along with his girls.

"It's really not-" Tony started to protest but when he saw raised eyebrows and worried looked from his parents, he conceded. "OK."

"And pain meds... Jeez; just how high is your pain threshold?" Shannon muttered pretty much to herself as she ushered her boys out of the room. "I'll call Jane to come and sit with Abby while we get Tony to the hospital. Good thing we've got people around to help us." She said and walked off to call their neighbor to ask her to come over if she could; setting an example for Tony that it was alright to ask for help.

They all needed to learn things as they went on, but somehow, she felt that Gibbs and she were the ones to make the most mistakes in this deal; the kids were kids and so, they were allowed to make mistakes and their mistakes were never big and messy like the ones grownups did; and besides, they were both great kids who were pretty much independent and well-behaved. _They_ were the ones who'd jumped from being inexperienced young couple to being the parents of two kids who were already past their early years; they'd had no proper preparation like most parents did and she hoped that because of the lack of that preparation and experience, they wouldn't screw up too much; and yet she was hopeful because she knew they'd been lucky and had found themselves the best kids ever.

Somehow, they'd make this work; she just knew it.

**.**

**.**

**The End...**

**.**


End file.
